"A" Level Subject Performance and Sex in relation to Medical School Examination performance

Abstract

The Relative performance of students admitted to the medical school with an A level pass in either biology or mathematics and of male and female students has been studied. The influence of the A level grade in chemistry on the subsequent performance in bio chemistry has also been investigated A significant difference (p<0.001) was found in the distribution of examination results covering all subjects examined among mathematicians and biologists. In general; mathematicians performed significantly better overall than did biologists. In particular mathematicians performed significantly better (p<0.01) in anatomy. Whilst there is no significant difference between the performance of male and female students taken overall, females appear to perform significantly better (p<0.001) than males in the clinical subject areas, The quality of the A level grade in chemistry has a major influence on performance in biochemistry at the MB II examination